


Easy

by monanotlisa



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Canon, Apocalypse, Canon Character of Color, Canon Related, Canon Universe, Character Study, Character(s) of Color, Children, Drabble, Falling In Love, Family, Feelings, Firsts, Fluff, Future, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, POV Character of Color, Protectiveness, Relationship(s), Team, War, Wordcount: 500-1.000, this is why we fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 04:10:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10823475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monanotlisa/pseuds/monanotlisa
Summary: Working title for this was "Faith, Hope, and Trip", which tells you everything you need to know.Spoilers for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2x20Farewell Cruel World.





	1. Chapter 1

Mack thinks this is his cross to bear. Only he has a body on the Other Side that Simmons and Daisy called reality.

Everything here is just code. Every _body_ is just code. Mack remembers this world cascading around him only to ripple back into place, into space: a virtual one. One and zero, zero and one, ad infinitum. Do androids dream of electric souls? 

Mack dreams of salvation.

(He can’t stop remembering Trip with Hope on that bench when he returned. Trip’s smile, warm and affectionate. Like his hand curled around Hope.)

It’s right inside here. It’s all its people.


	2. Chapter 2

Trip’s voice is so smooth; how does it carry throughout the bunker? 

Mack can hear the echo of Trip’s words hours and days after he spoke to the leftover Resistance. They all listened. The Patriot’s leadership style was as far from H.Y.D.R.A.’s as...a secret paramilitary organization’s hierarchy could get. People are contributing, discussing ideas. 

Hope looks up at him from the circuit board she’s modifying with nimble fingers and asks Mack point-blank about his take on Agent Antoine Triplett as the new leader.

“Trip, The Patriot?” Mack blinks.

Hope’s dark eyes are solemn. “That works, daddy.”

Mmh. “It does, Sparkplug.”


	3. Chapter 3

“I’m for it.” Mack says, adds, “sir.” 

Trip laughs. “Nah, ‘Trip’, for you. What about the others; Oates, Bergson?”

Even the White folks were into The (new) Patriot. Mack’s seen them fistbump Trip, hug him. Fawza touched him absently, played him her latest radio signal. Trip’s more than a flirty Howling Commandos heir.

Mack tells Trip.

Mack doesn’t tell him that he himself is used to hunkering down, making himself quiet, if not smaller then unobtrusive. White folks get scared of brothers in the foreground. But Trip is...Trip. 

What Mack says is, “I can start on the suit right now.”


	4. Chapter 4

It’s one thing getting Trip into The Patriot suit. Test run. First engagement. Second. Third --

Mack’s heart stops when the shield overloads, dashboard glowing-red. He’s simply an engineer annoyed at technology failing

(wonky code within wonky code)

.

But Trip’s grinning as if his shoulder pad hadn’t just been ripped off, dark skin gleaming in the med bay light. Mack’s fingers skim over Trip’s bruises, beads of sweat on his biceps, before Mack pulls back. “Sorry.” 

“Don’t be, man.” Trip’s hand on Mack’s cheek is calloused like his own.

Getting Trip out of the suit is another thing altogether.


	5. Chapter 5

Fighting the good fight is not living the good life. Forget metaphysical questions of life and reality: They scrabble for a hold on the Resistance, on people’s hearts. There is a new head of H.Y.D.R.A. in the Triskelion, because not only nature does abhor a vacuum. Code and human conduct protect the rigid structures of its inception. 

But love? Mack looks at Hope and Trip -- at the smile on her face when her drone taps Trip on the shoulder and the spark in his eyes when he looks, exaggeratedly, at the side from where the tap came. 

Love’s easy.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I promise each chapter is a drabble, i.e. EXACTLY ONE-HUNDRED WORDS. ::shakes tiny impotent fist at the AO3 wordcounter::


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